“I want to announce at this point that I will be voting 'no' this afternoon on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to a debate on Libya,” Wicker said.

“If we had a serious effort to talk about the national debt in this week of recess that has been canceled, we would be convening the Budget Committee today and asking them to report a budget on the floor for the first time in almost 800 days,” he added, noting that no such plans were scheduled.

Corker added that while Libya was an important issue, it was “totally irrelevant” to the much larger issue of reaching some agreement on the debt ceiling.

“The issue of the day is our debt ceiling,” Corker said. “I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote 'no' this evening for cloture. Let’s not take up an issue that will have no effect on — that has nothing to do with the debt ceiling, and let’s move to those kinds of issues that will.”

With the Republicans objecting, the measure would have likely failed if it came to the floor for the 5 p.m. vote Reid scheduled. It would have needed 60 votes to win cloture and move forward in the legislative process.

At a press conference that came on the heels of Reid’s announcement, Republicans claimed two victories. Aside from forcing Reid to take the unusual step of keeping the Senate in for the holiday, they said they managed to kill the Libya resolution.

Last week Johnson objected when Reid tried to bring the vote to the floor by unanimous consent, which then required the Democratic leader to try to bring it to the floor by a cloture vote.

“Momentum just continued to build — it began last week — and I am glad Sen. Reid has pulled the Libya vote,” said Corker, who noted that Republicans remain united in their resolve to force the Senate to stick to financial matters.

“The Senate is back in session this week to address the looming debt crisis,” said McCain. “The majority of senators understandably prefer to focus on that issue this week, and therefore consideration of the resolution authorizing force in Libya has been delayed. I believe the Senate has a responsibility to debate the ongoing conflict in Libya, and it is my hope that we will address this issue as early as next week.”

—This story was posted at 3:48 p.m. and updated at 4:04 p.m. and at 7:27 p.m.